Last week we explored the big issues of teams that will be just outside championship contention in the 2025-2026 NBA season.
Now we’re asking questions about the real contenders, starting with the champions:
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
I spoke to a former NBA champion who won an NBA title as a young player, a playoff run he excelled in, and he said “I just kind of knew we’d go back a few more times pretty quickly.”
They never came close. The Thunder’s biggest battle won’t be the Nuggets, Clippers, Luka, nor the Cavs for that matter. It will be complacency. It’s human nature to relax after a title, or perhaps it’s more a selective memory of how fast and easy that title came for many of their players, forgetting the pain and hardships that existed for some of their vets.
That’s the bad news. The good news is, this is an exceptionally well-run franchise that is all too aware of that common malady afflicting champions.
The Thunder have a clear and bright target on their jerseys, and the only way they will grow as a unit is to, in a sense, hate everyone in their path. That attitude does not have to exist right away, but it needs to appear at some point if the Thunder are to repeat.
DENVER NUGGETS
The Nuggets changed coaches late in the season and took the champs to seven games. Pretty darn good. But with the clear best player in the world, that’s not going to be seen as enough.
They changed GMs too, and theoretically, everyone is on the same page.
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